What's in store today...

Fiona Bond
29.10.09 00:01

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) is oiling the cogs of the corporate calendar today with its quarterly results following in the footsteps of rival BP (BP-) on Tuesday.

Despite the recent rally in oil prices, market conditions continue to be challenging and this is widely expected to be felt in the company's earnings.

Tony Shepard, analyst at Charles Stanley, said: "Third-quarter results are expected to show a 60% fall in earnings. Against this background of weak group earnings a key feature of the results will be how the cash flow is coping with the funding of the high capital expenditure programme and the cost of the dividend."

The company's new CEO, Peter Voser, is expected to change Shell's structure to improve profitability and deliver its 2011-2012 production growth plan which involves bringing on stream a further one million barrels of oil a day of new capacity. Voser has already slashed senior management positions by around 20% and $0.7 billion of costs have already been delivered.

As part of its restructure, Shell will offer up a new results format with upstream activities of exploration and production, gas and power and oil sands will be consolidated into two businesses called Upstream Americas and Upstream International. Downstream activities of refining, marketing and chemicals will be broadened to include trading and alternative energy.

The spotlight will also fall upon leading pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's (AZN) third-quarter results.

The company delivered strong first and second-quarter results and is expected to follow this up with a solid performance in the third quarter.

The past three months have been dominated by positive pipeline news, including the approval of diabetes drug Onglyza and positive data associated with heart-attack drug Brilinta.

Although there is concern surrounding the company's long-term prospects given the launch of Generic Lipitor in November 2011, the company's short terms prospects look promising.

Charles Stanley's Jeremy Batstone-Carr said: "For now, data continues to point towards another good performance from top selling brands where list prices increased by an average 12% over the past 12 months."

Last but not least, mining company Kazakhmys (KAZ) is to update investors with its third-quarter results following the soaring copper prices of late as China struggles to stockpile the commodity.

On the economic front, Bank of England figures are widely expected to show that mortgage approvals for house purchases rose from 52,317 in August to 53,500 in September.

Results

(Finals) Namakwa Diamonds

(Interims) LiDCO

(Quarterly) CSR, Royal Dutch Shell A, Royal Dutch Shell B, Standard Life, Virgin Media

AGMs

Advance Developing Markets, Amberley Group, Arcontech Group, BHP Billiton, Bright Things, Dyson Group, Framlington Innovative Growth Trust, Go-Ahead Group, MeDaVinci, Murgitroyd Group, Photo-Me International, Syndicate Asset Management, The Directors Dealing Inv Trust, United Carpets

EGMs

F&C Commercial Property Trust, Global MENA Financial Assets

Trading statement

Kazakhmys, AstraZeneca, Standard Chartered

Dividend payment date

(Final) Haynes Publishing Group, Lighthouse Group, Oxford Instruments

(Interim) International Power, Lighthouse Group

(Quarterly) Henderson Global Property Companies

What's in store today...

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